Kanye West Donates $150,000 to Family of Black Security Guard Fatally Shot by Police

Kanye West has donated $150,000 to the family of Jemel Roberson, who was the black security guard tragically killed by police after he subdued a shooting suspect.

West, 41, made the outstanding donation on the GoFundMe page the 26-year-old’s family created following his murder on Nov. 11.

A fan account took a photo of West’s 10 donations of $15,000 and shared the screenshot on Instagram Friday.

Roberson, who was the father of a 9-month-old son, was in uniform and wearing a hat, emblazoned with the word “security,” while holding down the alleged assailant early Sunday at Manny’s Blue Room Lounge in Robbins, outside of Chicago, Illinois. Roberson also was holding his licensed firearm at the time, WGN-TV reported.

When officers from the neighboring suburb of Midlothian responded to the shooting, they encountered Roberson holding “somebody on the ground with his knee in his back, with his gun in his back,” witness Adam Harris told the TV station.

Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney confirmed the shooting by his department’s officer who “encountered a subject with a gun,” and said in a statement, “The subject the officer shot was later pronounced deceased at an area hospital.”

Jemel Roberson

The security guard employed by the bar “was trying to save people’s lives,” according to Gregory Kulis, an attorney for the Roberson family, as reported by Chicago TV station WLS. “He was working security because a shooting had just taken place in the establishment.”

On Monday, Roberson’s mother, Beatrice, filed a lawsuit alleging the violation of her son’s federal civil rights against the village of Midlothian and the unnamed Midlothian officer who shot Jemel. Beatrice is seeking more than $1 million in damages, CNN reported.

“This was going to be my baby’s first Christmas with his dad and now he’s going to miss out on everything,” said Avontea Boose, the mother of Roberson’s 9-month-old son, according to the Associated Press.

According to witness accounts, a fight had allegedly broken out in the bar when someone began firing a gun. Five people were shot but the injuries to four of them, including the alleged shooter, were not life-threatening, said Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, according to The New York Times.

The police-involved shooting of Roberson is under investigation by the Illinois State Police.